Former Tibetan political prisoner Golog Jigme meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on July 26, 2018 at the U.S. Department of State, in Washington, D.C. Photo: TPI

President Dr Lobsang Sangay with the Thank You India Souvenir – A Dharmachakra representing the wheel of Universal Truth, at the press conference at Press Club of India on January 18, 2018. Photo: CTA/DIIR/Tenzin Phende

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Dharamshala, India: -The spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will visit Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic at the invitation of Forum 2000, the foundation jointly created by former Czech president Václav Havel, with the highlight of his trip a conference centered on human rights in China and other parts of Asia.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will speak at a round table conference being held at Prague's Charles University on Dec. 11, which is being regarded as a follow up to Forum 2000's "Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Asia" conference staged in 2009.

Former President Václav Havel, Former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and other dignitaries will also address on Democracy and Human Rights in Asia: One Year After an Empty Chair in Oslo round table conference in Prague on 11 December. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will arrive in Prague on 10 December.

The round table conference will also commemorate the first anniversary of Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. The conference will focus on the current state of democracy and human rights in Asia.

Nobel Laureate Dr Shirin Ebadi, Mr Stéphane Hessel, diplomat, co-drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Dr Jianli Yang, dissident, president and founder of Initiatives for China based in Boston, USA, will also address the conference.

"Human rights are universal. China, Myanmar (Burma) and other Asian countries are members of the United Nations and are therefore bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," said Forum2000 the organisers of the round table. "In fact, one of the declaration's authors, Peng Chun Chang from China, based many of the declaration's principles on Confucian and other Eastern teachings. Nonetheless, the human rights situation in parts of the region is a cause for grave concern. The empty chair at the 2010 Nobel peace prize award ceremony remains a sad symbol of this."

The conference will be held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Forum 2000 Foundation also organised Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Asia conference in September 2009.

On Sunday afternoon His Holiness the Dalai Lama will give a public talk on Searching for Happiness in a Troubled World. The talk will be held at the Prague Congress Centre and the tickets were sold out in one day.

The round table conference and the public talk will be live broadcast on http://www.forum2000.cz/en/web-tv/

His Holiness the Dalai Lama first visited Prague at the official invitation of President Havel soon after the Velvet Revolution in January 1990. President Havel became the first President after the communist rule. This will be His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 9th visit to the Czech Republic.